A Chance Meeting
by Rap
Summary: Dr. Carter sees someone who is strangely familar
1. Default Chapter

" A Chance Meeting "  
  
It was a good feeling, John Carter thought as he walked down the sterile aisles of Ithaca Community Hospital, to be walking in a hospital with your oldest son escorting you. Especially when it was your eldest son the recent medical school graduate who was showing you around his first hospital. That was one of the best feelings he'd ever felt and it was bittersweet only because Jason's mother hadn't lived to see it. A pity, but as the cancer had consumed Marie, he was simply glad that she had lived to see Jason's graduation and then passed on quietly in her sleep not long after.  
Yes, he thought proudly as he looked at his son, this just about caps it all. He was fifty nine and his eldest son was following in his footsteps. It was hard not to feel proud. The other kids weren't slouches either. The youngest, still in high school, was winning science prizes and looked like she'd make a fine doctor too. The twins were in their second year of pre-law and the only other girl... John sighed. He worried a little about Jessica. She was at her first year of Columbia and it already looked as though she was going to be the son his own father had wanted. Those capitalist money mongering genes had to go somewhere, he supposed, and it would be nice to see a Carter at the head of the business again. Jessica reminded him of Millicent Carter, and he supposed that wasn't all bad.  
" Dad, I've got a page. Some sort of bad accident up north." Jason looked excitedly towards the trauma rooms. " We get a lot of the major accidents around here. This is the best hospital north of New York City; Auburn Memorial is sending the victims down here by ambulance since they aren't a Level One Trauma center. Car accidents are about as bad as it gets though. We don't have to put up with all the violent crap like what you get in Chicago. People around here generally only shoot themselves in hunting accidents or suicides. And the suicides are mostly at finals time."  
" Well, don't let me keep you." John said quickly. " You need to get in there. Now if you'd come to County I could throw you a few procedures every once in a while..." He broke off as Jason made a face. It wasn't an argument though John did wish that Jason had chosen a college and hospital a little closer to home. County was out of the question, since he was now the Chief of Emergency. Having his son there as a resident would simply look horrible. He'd never caught the paranoia bug as badly as his predecessor, Kerry Weaver had, but he wasn't born yesterday. If he had thought that stepping down would have kept Jason closer to home, he would have, but the truth was that Jason wanted to get away. He had gone to Harvard Medical and none of the hospitals he had applied to were even close to Chicago. It worried John but he viewed Jason's invitation out to Ithaca for the weekend as a sort of reaching out. It was nice, much nicer than the frosty relationship he'd had with his own father. He sensed that it was the natural drawing away that a son did when he came of age.  
Besides, it was rather fun to watch Jason interact with other doctors, doctors that hadn't know him since his birth. Sometimes, it amused John to compare Jason to all the doctors that had been a part of his life. Jason looked like Marie, there was no doubt of that. He had her fair hair and bright blue eyes, and he had her bright winning personality, but sometimes he could see glimpses of others. Oh, he could see himself in Jason, in all of his children, but sometimes he saw others. Jason had the warm, sensitive side that he first saw in Mark Greene. Mark hadn't been a part of their lives since Jason was six but John could see his influence. Towards the end of his life, Mark hadn't been up for much but he had enjoyed the visits of Carter's family, and Jason had been devastated when the man had finally passed away in his sleep.  
He stood off to the side, watching as the doctors and nurses piled up by the emergency room entrance. It was clear that a big car accident was a rarity and there were many interns vying for some action. Jason was right in the middle of it, and John was pleased to see the chief resident choose him as one of the interns that would help out. There was a blur of moment as an ambulance pulled up to the door. People literally dove for patients and for a moment, he was overcome by the activity. It had been a long time since he had observed a procedure as opposed to participating. It made him feel old. For a moment he was taken back in memory, and he wondered just what Gabe Lawrence thought as he watched his former student take on a challenge without needing his help. Stop it, he told himself, you're just depressing yourself. It was true that it wouldn't be long before he had to step down, but it was still a few years off. And thinking of Gabe reminded him of Kerry Weaver, and that reminded him of how she had died in a car wreck fifteen years earlier. Time is passing, he thought sadly.  
Then again, he thought as his son rushed by with a gurney, clearly getting the lowdown from a pretty blonde doctor, I've been blessed. Luckier than most of my friends, with family and children who are all doing well. He wasn't dead, and he'd gotten more years than Mark or Kerry, that was for certain. He wasn't like poor Susan Lewis, always wondering where her kids were when she had to work night shifts. And yes, Marie had died, but he had almost twenty six years with her, which made him far luckier than Peter Benton, who had never married. Life, John thought, has been pretty damn idyllic really. He had been lucky. The worst thing that had ever happened to him was being stabbed, and in retrospect he supposed he hadn't gotten the worst of it. That had been saved for poor Lucy Knight, now thirty years dead. If that's the worst that ever happens, he told himself, then I am a lucky man. Blessed really.  
There was a frenzy of movement as the patient was rushed towards the waiting elevator. John let himself smile as he heard Jason shout out a variety of orders. From what he could tell, the patient was in for a rough time but was stable. Jason peeled off his gloves and coverall and came back to him, looking excited and almost bursting from the exertion. " Dad, I hope you weren't bored. I have to fill out the chart for this guy and then we can go to dinner."  
" I was fine, just watching this good looking young doctor save some man's life." John said cheerfully. Despite the pulling away of the last few years, he could see the joy in his son's eye. I have made a fine young man, he thought.  
Jason shrugged off the compliment after a moment. " I need to update the attending that came along, so she can head back to her hospital. It'll be a few minutes."  
" Not a problem." John wandered back to the waiting area. He had made reservations at one of the better restaurants. Ithaca wasn't Chicago, not by a long shot, but it did cater to a high population of upper class folks. It was a quaint university town masquerading as a city, and he could see why it would appeal to his eldest son. Even as a child, Jason had disliked the bustle of metro Chicago. After a few minutes though, John decided to seek his son out. He knew how long it took to fill out a chart, and he suspected his son was chatting up the blonde doctor that had accompanied the patient. He took up a position just outside the trauma room and peeked in. What he saw didn't surprise him. Jason was indeed chatting with the blonde doctor. He could only see the woman's back, but there was something oddly familiar about how she stood. He tapped the door.  
Jason waved him to come inside. " Dad, I'm almost done. This is Dr. Liz Farrell. Dr. Farrell, this is my father, Dr. John Carter."  
The woman spun around, looking almost startled. First she looked at him and then back at Jason, taken back. Then she held out her hand. " It's a pleasure... Dr. Carter." She looked back at Jason, her hand brushing some stray hair away from her eyes. " You two don't look very much alike."  
John was too startled to respond at first. He shook her hand through a fog of surprise. He knew what he had seen in her eyes. It was shock. Shock and recognition. She was covering it well, but it was there. Jason, not seeing the tension, saved the moment. " I take after my mom. You should see my twin brothers though. They look just like Dad." Jason turned to him. " We better get going. I don't have that much time for dinner."  
" Of course." He looked at Dr. Farrell and smiled, knowing that it couldn't be what he thought. " It was a pleasure, Dr. Farrell."  
" I guess I'll see you at the next car wreck." Jason said cheerfully. John walked along side him, not sure what to say. Jason seemed to sense it and as they entered the parking lot, he asked, " Dad, do you know Dr. Farrell? You seemed a little weirded out by her."  
" No, no, she just reminds me of someone I used to know. Where does Dr. Farrell work out of again?"  
" Auburn Memorial. It's about a two hour drive from here. Kind of an industrial town. The big employer is the prison." Jason paused. " Are you OK, Dad?"  
" Just tired. Let's get some food." And a drink, John told himself. What he was thinking wasn't possible, he knew that. It was just chance and odd circumstance. Despite that, he knew he would have to look into it.   
Dr. Liz Farrell had recognized him. And Dr. Liz Farrell was Lucy Knight's identical twin. John knew in his heart that he couldn't let that rest, because he had seen it in her eyes. He had seen a ghost. He had seen Lucy Knight, looking as she had the day she died. And in a rational world, that simply wasn't possible.   



	2. chapter 2

" A Chance Meeting part 2 "  
  
He knew he should let it go. He knew that the woman he had seen couldn't possibly have been Lucy Knight. Lucy Knight, even if she was alive, would be well into her fifties, not still a fresh faced young woman. That was ludicrous to even think, and yet he couldn't shake the idea from his head.  
She had recognized him. That was what bothered him. She knew him and a small town doctor in upstate New York had no reason to know him. He wasn't a force in the world of emergency medicine. His research wasn't published in the major journals. Outside of Chicago, the Carter name wasn't well known. He certainly wasn't the best known of the Carter clan either. So how had she known him?  
And that was why he found himself sitting in a car, waiting outside the staff parking lot of the Auburn Memorial Hospital. It was crazy. It was technically stalking, and he had taken vacation time in order to do it. He had to know, though. He knew that, realistically, it was just an uncanny resemblance. Lucy hadn't been a uniquely exotic woman after all. He wondered if perhaps Lucy had a child that she had never spoken of. Liz Farrell was an attending, according to his son, which meant that she had to be in her late twenties if not early thirties. It was possible that she was Lucy's daughter, and it would please him immensely to know that Lucy had left something of herself behind. So he had taken a week off to hang around an upstate New York hospital in hopes of spotting the elusive Liz Farrell. In some places, it was called stalking, so he kept the nature of his trip to himself. He was dredging up the past and deep down, he knew it wasn't a good idea. He should let sleeping dogs lie, and dead women rest peacefully, he knew that. Yet he had to know. He knew he couldn't let it lie.  
He perked up as he spotted her crossing the dark parking lot. She was moving with a purpose, intent. It was eerie. He had seen that intent look before, when they had been searching for a little girl's father. It couldn't just be a daughter, he thought suddenly. It was Lucy, right down to the faintly exasperated look she gave the sticky car door.   
He carefully tailed her as she drove through the small city. He knew what her address was, and he had learned enough about the city to know that she wasn't heading home. It was strange, really. She drove her car fast, heading south. He followed, taking great care not to get too close. After forty five minutes or so, she pulled off into what was clearly a public beach. The sign read Long Point State Park and from what he could see, it was basically a small campground and stony beach beside a lake. There were picnic benches and tall shady maple trees. While the actual beach was mostly cobble stone, he could almost imagine what a popular spot it would be in the summer. In late fall, with the trees turning colors, it was still pretty, but it held an air of abandonment. It was a lonely place, he thought. There were lights ringing the lake, but the park was dark. It was an odd place for a young woman to go, and he decided to park outside of the park. It was just a hunch, but he had a bad feeling suddenly. Besides, he reasoned as he parked in a dirt road that led off from the park, I'm not supposed to let her know that I'm following her.  
He carefully walked through the treeline. It was thick with brush and since he had a good view of the picnic pavilion, he decided to remain hidden there. She was sitting on top of a picnic table, wearing a dark trench coat, the sort his grandfather had called a drover's coat. The coat wasn't Lucy's style, but the gangly relaxed way she sat reminded him of her, as did her frustrated expression. She was waiting for someone, he decided, but she wasn't happy about it. It was a strange place to have a rendezvous. He felt his tension rise a notch.  
Another car pulled up. A man got out, a large bulky man that was also wearing a long coat. She got up. Carter was struck by how small she looked, how tiny compared to the man. There was menace surrounding the man, though aside from being large, there wasn't anything special about him. Just a large fellow who looked Irish, judging by the broad features and red hair. Carter crouched down low. He had a feeling something bad was about to happen.  
" So you came. I thought you were a coward, Knight." As the man spoke, Carter felt a rush of sudden vindication. Even though it raised many many new questions, he felt a strange sense of relief. He wasn't crazy. However it happened, whatever bizarre circumstance caused it, he was looking at Lucy Knight. Somehow, Lucy was alive. For the moment, that was what mattered.  
Lucy stood up. Her body was tense, he could tell. " I never said I was a coward, Sean. It just doesn't have to be this way. We don't have to fight." Her voice brought it home for him. It was that same, almost righteous tone she used when she thought she was right.  
The man laughed. " Thinking like that makes you weak." With a flourish he pulled out a sword. " There can be only one."  
Lucy withdrew a small sword from her jacket. " I know." She waved the sword like she knew how to use it. " It won't be you."  
Carter watched in frightened awe as the two people clashed swords. He had seen sword play before, in plays and on television, but he had never seen it in real life. It was scary and rough, and both people were sweating and grunting from the effort. While it looked effortless, he could see both of them tiring. After ten minutes, both had cuts and he could see blood on them both. He wanted to stop them, but he sensed that he was watching something secret. He was seeing something that he wasn't meant to see and he wanted answers to his many questions. If he stepped out and stopped the fight, he knew instinctively that he would not only be placing himself in grave danger, but he would also never get the answers he wanted.   
The man, Sean, had reach and size on Lucy, but she was fast, lightening fast. She slipped in and out, and in one fell swoop, she slashed across the man's thighs, hamstringing him quite effectively. He fell to his knees, dropping his sword. Lucy kicked the sword away. In horror, Carter watched as she raised her sword and brought it down on the man's neck.  
He gasped. He couldn't help it. He had seen a lot of things in his life, including murder, but he had never seen anything quite so bizarre. The man's body was still twitching, and Lucy stood there, looking tired and forlorn. She hugged her arm to her chest, obviously pained by the gash on her chest that should have put her in the hospital, and toed the man's body. The sword was still in her hand, held loose, with blood dripping onto the cement of the pavement. He almost got up then, to confront her, but something held him back. It wasn't done, he realized. Until it was finished, whatever it was, he was better off being fifty feet away. It was instinct, possibly the strongest instinctive feeling he'd ever had, and he wasn't fool enough to disobey it.  
There was an electric feel in the air. The hair on his arm rose and his skin tingled. He watched from his hiding spot. Lucy seemed to sense the electricity too. She looked up, expectantly. Carter gasped again as a bolt of lightening slammed into her. Over and over, it rained down on her. Her sword was like a lightening rod, and he could see the electric current roll over her like a bright white wave. The wind picked up, and he suspected that between it and the lightening, if there had been any buildings nearby, they would have lost their windows.  
As quickly as it started, the flurry of lightening ended. Lucy dropped to her knees, breathing hard. It seemed obvious that she was exhausted. He could see the sweat dotting her forehead and her hands were shaking. It was over, he thought as he rose to his feet, and now I can get some answers. He brushed off the leaves and dirt and strode toward the pavilion. He didn't know what he was going to do. He had just seen a woman he thought was dead behead a man. Then she had been struck by lightening. That was certainly not normal. Then again, neither was flying across the country to stalk said dead woman.  
She didn't seem to hear him. He got within ten feet of her before he said anything and then it was just one word. " Lucy."  
She looked up at him, obviously startled. He saw the recognition in her eyes again. He was right, he knew it. Liz Farrell was an unperson, a fake. Kneeling before him, holding a bloody sword and looking not a day over twenty six, was Lucy Knight. Her eyes widened and she rose to her feet shakily, the sword still in her hand. It worried him, but not much. There was an explanation. He couldn't imagine what it was, but he assumed there was a reason for what he had just seen.  
" Carter." She looked him over, her expression somewhere between sad and worried. " What are you doing here?"  
He almost laughed. " What am I doing here? What are you doing here? You were dead. There was a funeral. I had nightmares for years. I spent three months in rehab and three years in therapy trying to stop feeling guilty about your death. And here you are, alive. Alive and looking just like you did, but it's been thirty years. What the hell is going on?"  
She blushed and looked down at her feet. It was an achingly familiar look. It was how she looked when she'd been caught in a lie. " John... I'm sorry, but you can't possibly understand. Go home. Go back to your family and forget everything you saw. Lucy Knight died thirty years ago. Go back to Chicago and let it rest. You're better off not knowing the answers you want."  
" Damn it Lucy, you don't get off that easy! You were dead! You just killed a man! You were just struck by lightening over a dozen times! I think I deserve a damn explanation!" He was shouting, but he didn't stop himself or lower his voice. Suddenly all of the pain that he thought had gone came rushing back. The image of her, lying on the floor gasping for air came to him. It was an image that had haunted him for years." Do you know what it did to me? Do you?"  
She was quiet. Her hand clenched the sword. " I knew. It hurt. It hurt like hell. Carter, you need to forget this. It's in the past. I'm sorry you were hurt. You will never know how sorry I was, but nothing good can come of this. You can't ever know the answers you want." Her eyes sparkled with tears.  
" Why not?" He felt his anger growing. " What's to stop me from going to the papers tomorrow and telling them about the murder you committed tonight?"  
She eyed him carefully. He could see her expression change subtly. With a sudden twist, the sword in her hand went from by her side to up against his neck. For the first time, he felt a flash of fear. She had the look of someone who didn't want to do something, but knew they had to. It was grim determination he saw in her eyes. That, and sadness. " John, I liked you. I even loved you, and there hasn't been one day since that Valentine's day that I didn't think about you. If anything good came out of that night, it was that you lived." Her voice grew softer, but she held the blade hard to his neck. " You saw something tonight you were never meant to see. If you say anything, you will be killed."  
" By you?" He knew the answer was no. He could see it in her eyes.  
She dropped the sword. " No Carter, not by me. By the others. We have rules. Not many, but no one breaks them. If you say anything, you'll mark yourself for death. We read the papers, we scan the Internet. People who talk, die. What you saw is impossible to prove and the ones who know it was the truth will kill you, because it's a secret, and you can be eliminated. I don't want that. I don't think you want that either."  
He knew she was telling the truth. They, whoever they were, didn't have the compunctions she did about killing him. It made him feel cold inside. He wasn't ready to die, that he knew. " Lucy, I won't say anything. I just want to know what happened."  
She stepped backward. " I can't. Go home, Carter. Let it go. Forget about tonight, and go home to your family." She turned and trotted off towards her car. In seconds she was gone.  
I can't let it rest, he thought as he watched her car head up the hill and out of the park, I can't. I have to know what really happened.  



	3. chapter 3

"A Chance Meeting - part 3 "  
  
He wasn't sure what to do. He wanted answers, answers that Lucy wouldn't give him. He could hound her, he knew that, but he knew she wouldn't tell him anything. He had seen it in her eyes. It was her, he had no doubt, but she had changed. There was something hard within her, something he had never seen in her. She had meant what she had said. That meant he would have to find out who "they" were on his own.   
He had done his best to research back, to figure out just when Lucy Knight became Elizabeth Farrell. He hadn't found it, but he suspected that he was close. Elizabeth Farrell, or Liz, as her college yearbook called her, supposedly came from Plattsburg, New York. Small enough that no one has ever been there, but large enough that one more person would go unnoticed. She had gone to Cornell Medical School, and her career as a doctor was standard, if not terribly noticeable.  
But... Before undergraduate school, Liz Farrell existed only on paper, and he had found a death certificate for a baby bearing that name. So he had proof that Liz was an assumed identity. The problem was filling in the twenty or so years between Lucy's death and Liz's appearance.   
The place to start, he reasoned as he stepped out of the small library he had started his research at, is Cook County. The night Lucy Knight was killed. He had to talk to the people who had seen her last. The most obvious problem was that thirty years had passed. His witnesses were dead or scattered to the four corners of the earth. Still he had to try, and he started with the closest possible. Peter Benton.  
Peter hadn't stayed at County. Carter had known that he wouldn't. The only thing that kept him in Chicago as long as he had stayed was his family and once he had gotten custody of Reese, he had gone on to bigger and better things. He was, even at the age of sixty-two, still considered one of the finest cardio-thoracic surgeons in the country. He had accepted a position at Cornell ten years back, with no real regrets as far as Carter knew. The schedule was slower than he liked, but he had wanted to stay close to Reese, who was attending the University of Rochester at the time. It was understandable, Reese was his only child. That the young man was doing just fine for himself as a computer engineer was simply a bonus. Carter knew a doting daddy when he saw one, and Reese had been Peter's greatest joy since the day he was born.   
Besides, he told himself, it has been a while since I saw Peter. They were still close, Peter has even come to Jason's graduation from medical school, something that had shocked Carter to no end, even though the man was Jason's godfather. Their families had stayed close too. Peter had liked Maria from the day he met her, and sometimes Carter wondered if Peter's approval was what prompted him to propose. The last time he had seen Peter had been at Maria's funeral, and he had not really been in the mood to socialize.  
Cornell was a lovely place, he thought as he drove around the picturesque campus. It was good to know that Peter had such a nice place to live and work. Over the years, though he knew Peter would never admit it, the man had mellowed. His appreciation for things had gone beyond medicine. He was even heard to remark about the scenic weather or how his family was doing. Carter almost grinned as he pulled into the staff parking lot. Peter has finally become a human being like the rest of us. It shouldn't be surprising, he told himself, but it was.   
He hadn't called ahead, but he knew that Fridays was Peter's office day. The fact that Peter actually maintained an office day was another change but he could see where it was handy. You had to put time aside for the paperwork the higher you went, and even though Peter hadn't exactly climbed the admin chain, he had to give time to his students. What Carter was counting on was that medical students hadn't changed and that no one was using Peter's office hours. That and the fact that he doubted that Peter had become an easily approachable man. Peter had always been a bit hard to deal with. There was caring in the man, Carter knew that, but it was rarely expressed to anyone other than family. He could admit that there was a part of him that still trembled at the thought of talking to Peter. It had been a long time since he was a medical student and yet he still had a twinge of fear as he raised up his hand to knock on the office door.  
" Come in," was the gruff response. His tone indicated that yes, he was being interrupted. Carter smiled as he opened the door.  
" I was having trouble with the last assignment," he said brightly. Peter looked up from the file he was reading. Shock and surprise spread across the older man's face as he stood up.  
" Carter, its good to see you. I didn't know you were in town." Peter smiled as he held out his hand. Shaking hands, Carter mused, was about as close as Peter would come to a public display of affection. " What pulled you out of the ER? Visiting Jason?"  
" I was. He's doing fine. I think I make him nervous." They exchanged pleasantries about family and work for a few minutes. Carter wasn't quite sure how to raise the topic. He knew how Peter would take it. It was thirty years in the past, but he was still a recovering drug addict because of it. There was an unpleasant history. On the other hand, it was thirty years ago. The raw wounds of Lucy's death had long scabbed over and turned into scars, and those scars had faded. It was a long time ago and he could argue that he was just seeking closure. In a very real way he was.  
" So what has you out here?" Peter asked after a moment. " You usually call ahead."  
Carter leaned back in the office chair he had chosen to sit in. " I wanted to ask you some questions... about Lucy." As he watched, Peter stiffened in his chair. He quickly pressed forward. " Don't take it the wrong way, all right? I know it was a long time ago, but I never really asked questions about what happened. It's been bothering me lately and I wanted to know what happened... so I can put it to rest."  
" Carter, " Peter said softly, " I thought you put this to rest a long time ago. Dredging it all up isn't going to help."  
" You know, I don't even know who was with her when she died. Or who worked on her or when it happened. Who took her down to the morgue? Who was with her last? Why was there a closed casket?" The key, Carter had realized, was finding out who gotten the not dead Lucy Knight out of the hospital. It was obvious to him why the casket had been closed. Either there had been no body at all, or more likely, an unidentified dead person had been substituted. And, he had a rising curiosity about the whole business. In truth he remembered very little about that night. He remembered being stabbed, he remembered looking across the room as he was lying on the floor and seeing Lucy less than five feet away, looking frightened and struggling to breathe. He remembered someone screaming, and then he had been in the trauma room, where Deb Chen and Luka Kovac had talked to him, though he could never remember what they had been saying. The next thing he remembered was waking up in recovery. A whole lot must have happened in between.  
" Who took her to the morgue? That's not letting it rest, that's morbid, Carter." Peter seemed annoyed.  
" It was one of the most significant events of my life and I don't know what happened." He let a pleading note enter his voice. " I don't even have a timeline."  
Peter frowned as he stood up and paced around the room. " Carter, it was a long time ago. A timeline isn't going to change anything, and I don't think I can tell you what you want to know. I didn't work on Lucy."  
" Tell me what you do know." Carter pressed.   
" Romano and Elizabeth were with Lucy when she died. It was around two in the morning. I don't know who took her down. It was probably a nurse." Peter stopped pacing for a moment. " It might have been Romano. He was upset, I'll give the bastard that. Or Kerry Weaver. She helped him close the chest incision, I think..." He put his hands down on his desk. " Carter, there's your problem. If anyone has the answers that you want, its those three. Elizabeth, Romano, and Kerry. Out of those three, only two are alive, and Robert Romano isn't long for the world."  
" Really?" That was a surprise. Carter considered that for a moment. " He's not that much older than you and I. What's wrong with him?" Romano had left Cook County almost fifteen years earlier, and Carter hadn't bothered to keep with him. He hadn't liked the often nasty and mean spirited man, but he had a grudging respect for Romano's surgical skill. He was a little surprised that Peter knew anything about the man though. There had been a lot of bad blood between them.  
" He's got leukemia. It wasn't caught until it was pretty advanced, and he decided to forgo treatment. He told Elizabeth that he didn't want to die the way Mark did." Peter paused. " He and Elizabeth kept in touch. She said he had about six months. " He shrugged. " I can't say I blame him. If it's advanced, chemo will just prolong the agony. Let's face it, Mark Greene died pretty badly."  
" Where is Romano living anyway?" If Romano was dying then he was the one that had to be spoken with first. Hopefully, he mused, it wasn't some godforsaken hellhole, though that was pretty unlikely. Romano had always had pretty good taste.   
Peter eyed him carefully. " Are you honestly considering what I think you're thinking?"  
" What do you think I'm thinking?" Carter smiled and leaned back in his chair. He didn't need Peter to tell him where Romano was living, he could ask Elizabeth. That Peter was so upset about the questions surprised him. It was clear that Peter was upset. Upset and disturbed, and he suddenly realized that it wasn't just the morbid topic. Peter seemed worried.  
" Carter, the man is dying. This is morbid. Morbid and sick. What difference does it make whether he took Lucy's body to the morgue? What are you hoping to accomplish with questions like that? Lucy died, Carter. It was a tragedy, but it happens. Let her go. " Peter's words were passionate, and Carter knew he had to respond.  
" I saw her, Peter. I saw Lucy Knight. She lives about a half hour from here." He expected a reaction but not the one he got. Peter Benton turned ashy gray. He returned to his seat and took a deep breath.  
" Carter, " He took another deep breath, and cradled his head in his hands. " I don't know how to respond to that."  
" She's living under the name Elizabeth Farrell." He decided to press forward. " She went to school here. You might have had her in class. " He doubted that actually. He knew Peter would have mentioned a student that looked eerily like Lucy.  
Peter chuckled mirthlessly. " Look, Carter, I'm not going to dignify that with an answer. Lucy Knight is not alive. I did not have her in class. If you want to go to Robert Romano and have him laugh in your face, be my guest, but I'm not going to help you humiliate yourself. Take my advice and see a psychiatrist. If you won't do that, then do yourself a favor, and let this fantasy go."  
" I can't do that, Peter." Carter rose to his feet. " I can't ignore what I saw." He didn't mention the swords or the dead man. There was no need. Peter wasn't going to discuss it further, even though Carter was convinced he knew something more than Romano's current address. " It was good seeing you, Peter."  
  



	4. chapter 4

" A Chance Meeting part 4 "  
  
It was beautiful in Vermont, Carter thought as he drove towards Burlington. It was fall, and he suspected that he was catching the area at it's best. All of the trees seemed to be exploding with color and the air had a crisp feel to it. It somehow made him feel better about what he was doing.  
There was something terribly wrong. He knew that. Peter had lied to him. That hadn't dawned on him until after he'd left Peter's office, but he knew it was true. Peter knew something about Lucy, something he wasn't telling. It convinced Carter that he was right. Something mysterious happened that night, something that had been kept from him. He was betting on the fact that Robert Romano was still enough of an asshole to tell him what had happened. It would piss Peter off, and that was something that Romano had always delighted in.  
He pulled into the driveway of the spacious ranch style house. While it was a simple looking house at first glance, he could see that there was a lot of money invested in it and in the land surrounding it. That didn't surprise Carter. Romano was a highly sought after surgeon, right to the end of his career, and he had only retired two years earlier. The man had the money to live well. It was just a pity that he wasn't going to live to have much of a retirement.  
Then again, he thought as he walked up to the door, Romano did retire at 71, well past the required age of retirement. There were doctors who stayed in the job until the day they died. Romano was one of them. As he understood it, the man had retired mostly due to his illness. He knocked on the door. A pretty young woman answered it. Of course, he thought with a smile, there just had to be a pretty, almost model worthy, woman living in the house. It was Romano's house after all.  
" Hello, " she said brightly, " You must be Dr. Carter. Robert was right, you do look like a thinner Harrison Ford. Come in. Robert's waiting for you in the garden." She gestured into the house.   
" He was expecting me?" That seemed odd to him. He certainly hadn't made a point of calling ahead of time.  
" He said that he thought you'd be by sometime this week. I'll show you to him. He's been looking forward to seeing you." He followed the woman through the house and out to the stone porch. The porch was enclosed, and the view of the neighboring mountains was spectacular.  
Romano was sitting in a wicker chair. He rose when Carter stepped onto the porch and held out his man. Carter's clinical eye could see that, indeed, Robert Romano was not long for the world. It wasn't obvious, but it was there. While Romano looked like a spry enough man, there was a delicate air to the way he stood. His handshake was firm yet Carter sensed that a push would topple him. And there was a strange knowing look in the man's eye. Carter realized that he was looking at a man who was intimately aware of his physical failings. And yet, he gave Carter his tight satyr-like smile, a smile that bespoke of his delight. Every time Carter had seen that smirk before, it was right before Romano dropped a verbal bomb.  
" Dr. Carter, Chief of the Cook County ER. Who would have thought that I'd live to see the day? Have a seat. Regina, " he gestured to the young woman, " why don't you bring us both a glass of scotch? You like scotch don't you Carter? "  
" Well, it's a little early..." His voice trailed off as Regina trotted off. It was only ten in the morning.  
" It's never too early for scotch." They both took seats in wicker chairs. Regina promptly brought two drinks and then left the patio. Robert lifted his glass. " How about a toast? To life, and the mysteries it contains." He sipped the drink. Carter did likewise. It was excellent scotch, expensive and smooth. Carter wasn't surprised. Romano had always been nasty but at the same time, he had always had good taste.  
" So, Dr. Carter, " he said after a moment's silence, " what brings you to my home on this fine fall day?" He seemed rather amused by the situation.  
Carter decided to be blunt. " I wanted to talk to you about Lucy Knight."   
Romano grinned and took another drink. " Lucy.... Not what I thought you'd want, considering that you're coming to me but sure. What concerns you about Lucy Knight?"  
" I saw her kill a man three nights ago with a sword. She looked about twenty-five. I talked to her. She admitted that she was Lucy. I'm not mistaken." He didn't care anymore. He knew it had happened.  
" Well..." Romano sipped his drink again. " You're not mistaken." He laughed at Carter's expression. " What? You expected more of a fight? I believe you. She's in some prison town in New York, from what I've heard." He chuckled. " I always liked that kid."  
" How do you know that? How is that possible?" Carter asked sharply. He felt his anger rise. Something had been kept from him and it was huge. Romano eyed him, as if debating to continue.  
" You know, " Romano said after a long pause," this is probably the last autumn I'll live to see. When times get short, a man often finds himself wanting to pass along his secrets. I don't have a son, Carter, at least not one I know about. I always liked you though. So, you can stand in and hear everything you think you need to know." Again Romano smirked. Carter didn't feel a lot of real affection coming from the man. Robert Romano enjoyed bedeviling people. On the other hand, he could see that the man's death was imminent and there was a certain honest note to what the man had just said.  
"I want to know what happened that Valentine's night," he said finally.  
Romano leaned back in his chair. " Carter, there are two kinds of people in this world. There's people like you and I, who have children and lives that end around the age seventy. Then, there are the people like Lucy Knight. She's an immortal, a person that doesn't die except under very special circumstances. They're very rare. They don't know what they are until they die for the first time. Lucy Knight's death was one of the few times that we were able to document an immortal's first death."  
" We?" It was bizarre and impossible and yet he realized that it was the only thing that fit what happened.  
" There is a society dedicated to watching these immortals." Romano said softly. " The Watchers. My father was a Watcher. When he died, I was inducted into the group. In case you're wondering, this is a worldwide phenomenon. There are immortals and watchers on every continent. It used to be that an assigned watcher followed their immortal across the world but now we trade. It's hard to get passports and visas to some countries."  
" Lucy is an immortal...but what about the sword? She killed a man. She said that they have rules and if she talked to me, or if I went to the papers, that they would come after me." He wondered if she had told the truth at the time or if she had just been trying to get rid of him. " She cut a man's head off. There was... a sort of electrical storm right after..."  
" Of course they have rules, " Romano huffed angrily. " Do you really think a secret society could function for hundreds, possibly thousands of years without rules? Yes they have rules. They wouldn't necessarily kill her for telling you anything, but if you went to the papers, they would definitely hunt you down. That's if the watchers didn't get you first." Romano's voice dropped a bit. " Going to the papers won't get you anywhere. I am more than happy to answer your questions, if only because Peter Benton asked me not to."  
Carter put that remark aside for later contemplation. " So what are the rules? What was that electrical storm?"  
" They believe that one of them is destined to rule the earth as a god. The only way to kill an immortal is to cut off its head. So they carry swords and sometimes they fight. They believe that when one kills another, they gather that immortal's power. In the last thirty or so years, some of them have decided that they can better serve humanity by not killing each other in an attempt to attain god like power. It's a nice idea but there are too many vicious animals in their population. " Romano paused. " They only fight two at a time. If a third immortal wanders into a fight they have to wait until the first fight is done. They won't fight on holy ground and they take that very seriously. They use holy ground for meetings."  
" What happened that night? In the hospital?" He knew that he wasn't getting the whole story, but he sensed it was amusing Romano to dangle information to him.  
" Lucy died. She died on the table." Romano's words grew more pensive and Carter could see that he was becoming lost in the memory. " I closed her up. I didn't know what she was, and I was upset." He drank deeply. " I liked her. Even finding out that she was one of them, it hurt. She was a kid, she had her whole life ahead of her. You can't come back from the dead in this world, not without questions. She had to leave everything. We lost track of her until ten years ago."  
" But what happened?" Carter pressed.  
" Kerry Weaver came in. I was surprised. Elizabeth said she had a real breakdown but she was pretty calm then. I wanted to be alone for a few minutes so I let her take the body down to the morgue. I decided to go down after a few minutes...I just wanted to say goodbye...And there she was." He laughed. " That was the last thing I expected." He looked at Carter intently. " Your buddy Peter caught us in the parking garage, so I had to tell him. I'll give that bastard credit. It killed him not to tell you, but he kept his word."  
" You made him promise not to tell me..."  
" Of course. If he told you, then there would have been a mess." Romano grew more forceful in his words. " Lucy had to be dead. Too many people saw her die. We had no way to explain how she was alive and fine hours after her death. If Benton said anything there would have been retaliation."  
After a moment, Carter let his anger fall back below the bright red range. He suspected that Romano was skirting around the fact that he had probably threatened Peter's life and his family. Considering the nature of the conspiracy, that was probably within Romano's capabilities. " So you got her out of the hospital. Why?"  
Romano grinned. " You are not the quickest study are you? I'm not Lucy's watcher. Tell you what, why don't you come back when you can fill in all the missing bits. " He finished up his drank. " A good father lets his son figure a few things out for himself, after all."  
  



End file.
